The first rule of news is never to get yours from newspapers or televisions. This goes doubly for American and Australians. Less so for the English: you have the BBC and the Guardian (and to a not-much-less-extent the Independent and the Times. You bastards). You clearly would not be here without internet access, so:

The Guardian is the best newspaper in the world. The non-English may prefer to start at their World section. The slighly-conservative Times of London is good, as is the assuredly non-conservative Independent (it is quite good – the front page just looks kind of silly).

Another good newspaper is the International Herald Tribune. It used to be a lot better, before editorship fell entirely under the New York Times, but it is still a good newspaper of world affairs, and one of my favourite parts of international travel. Headphones, IHT’s and departure lounges. Wonderful things in combination.

Outside of print, the BBC is easily the best thing around. If you’re using something like CNN or Fox instead, you don’t know what you’re missing. And I mean that literally – those networks are only making you less informed, not more, and a poorer citizen, not a better one. Google News is also a good place to go to catch latest news, although can be a bit of a victim of the news cycle. EIN News’ (itself fantastic) Central Europe Online is pretty good, as is Deutsche Welle.

Purely web-based enterprises that are well worth the time are Truthdig and Truthout, which includes both news and editorials from all over. 10 x 10 is of some use, but much fun to use. I treat the Huffington Post a little like Google News. It also serves as a good portal into American newspapers, rather than suffering their front pages (I am being unkind, but justly so. America suffers most, I think from not having a national newspaper). If you’re in America, be sure to complement your news with daily allowances of Media Matters and the Columbia Journalism Review (there used to be the CJR Daily, also, which was really good, but…funding cuts).

Wired and Discover magazine are excellent for science and technology, without having to enter the more Slashdot kind of world. Wired is becoming ever more lifestyle-oriented, though. The Digital Journalist is excellent (it is based upon photojournalism, and is always worth the 10 minutes).

Finally the likes of BagNewsNotes is excellent for looking behind the images we are given in so-called mainstream media – I clearly don’t think much of it, but it is fun to keep up with what the mainstream is doing. Crooks and Liars is also a good use of a lunch-hour spent at one’s desk.

BLDGBLOG (that’s Building Blog) is bloody great, truly truly interesting. The blogroll there is a sight to behold, as well. Its cohorts Inhabitat (which I love) and Subtopia (I’m less familiar, generally, but it is quite interesting to visit).

The Harper’s Index: Each month, the Harper’s Index provides a statistical snapshot of the world’s economic, political, and cultural climate (their description). It’s now behind a subscription wall, the bastards.

Mathworld: As I’m sure you’re aware, Wikipedia can be mined for a lot of information; Mathematics and Statistics are no exception. Mathworld also is a very good resource (put out by Wolfram, makers of Mathematica).

That other thing on the internet that employs my time (did you think it was porn? Sorry). Vastly superior to the normal kind of comics (the genius Brian Wood notwithstanding – although to be fair his are hardly of the normal variety. Don’t believe me? Go read Channel Zero and Jennie One, and we will discuss this again)

In no particular order,

It all starts, as it must, with Megatoko. read about Fred Gallagher’s adventuresome duo in Tokyo.

Copper: currently on hiatus, but if you’ve never seen it before that won’t matter until you’ve read and marvelled at what is already there. Kazu Kibuishi also produced the marvellous Daisy Kutter, by the by.